The most shameless alchemist in history

To get them, you have to climb the stairs. Otherwise, Winster wouldn't have been buried in a pile of books. You have to know that Winster is nearly 1.8 meters tall. Even he had to climb the stairs and put in a lot of effort to get the books on the upper floors, let alone Durley.

Finding the answer you're looking for among such a vast number of books is an extremely arduous process, and it also tests your luck. If you're lucky, you can just randomly flip through any bookshelf, grab a book, and with a flick of your wrist, open a page, and there it happens to be the answer you're looking for.

Those who were unlucky went through every single book one by one until they found the answer on the last page of the last book. In fact, this could only be considered bad luck, not terrible luck. Those who were really unlucky turned the library upside down and still couldn't find the answer they wanted.

Although the Maple Leaf Library is large, it is not all-encompassing. Besides the Maple Leaf Library, there are countless other libraries and countless collections on this continent. This is a sad reality, and it is also the reality that Du Lei has to face at this moment.

Clearly, he was not a lucky man, because for the next week he couldn't find the books he wanted in the library, and his alchemy experiments were at a dead end, which left him in a state of extreme depression.

Moreover, because he was always in the library, spending almost the entire day there and rarely attending classes, his dedication gradually made him famous among students. Various rumors about him spread like wildfire, and students discussed it extensively.

"Hey, did you guys know? There's a crazy guy who's been coming to the library lately. He's been reading books all day long, from morning till night, for over a week now. I've never seen anyone so studious!" Someone was talking about the library madman again, expressing their amazement.

"Are you talking about that freshman? I've heard about him too. Our Maple Leaf Academy is a magic energy research academy, not some philosophy academy or anything like that. If he goes there to study like this every day, could there be something wrong with the place? I'd feel uncomfortable even if I had to stay in there for an hour." Someone pointed to their head.

His implication was quite clear: only someone with a mental problem would treat reading like fighting a war, acting as if they were possessed.

"Stop talking nonsense. Don't you know who he is? He's one of the five freshmen with red magic energy reaction talent. He must have his reasons for doing this. But being able to read books so obsessively is not something a normal person can do."

Some people who knew the situation explained it to others, and some even came to the library specifically to see this madman after hearing the rumors, but they only dared to take a look from afar and did not dare to get close. One reason was that the madman's expression was too serious and his whole body was messy, making him difficult to approach.

Secondly, the reason why a madman is a madman is that he will do some inexplicable things. If you are too close to him and suddenly get hit, you will have nowhere to cry.

"Kelly, what's wrong with Dure? He always has a long face, all gloomy and unsettling. And he doesn't seem to be eating on time. Is this really okay?" On one side of the library, someone watched Dure, who was battling with his books, with great concern.

She had always wanted to meet Du Lei, but had never found the opportunity. Now she had the chance, because Du Lei checked in at the library every day, and almost half of the college knew about it. She went to the library excitedly, hoping to create a chance encounter with Du Lei.

However, the latter was completely absorbed in his books and ignored her at all, which made her feel somewhat disappointed, but more worried, because Du Lei's various reactions were really quite abnormal.

“I asked Lance, but he didn’t really know what was going on either. Recently, his close friends, Ms. Nono and Ms. Winster, are not around, so nobody knows what he’s up to. But he must have his reasons. Let’s ignore him and go.” Kelly shook her head.

Although she also didn't know what had happened to Dure, she was clear that he was definitely trying to solve a problem in his own way. She respected his choice, so she remained silent and didn't get involved. Not causing trouble was the greatest help she could give him.

259 The Life of Books

Du Lei's bad luck lasted for almost half a month. For other students, time passed quickly. They went to class, trained, completed their homework, and occasionally participated in some activities. The days passed by, and the freshmen gradually adapted to the rhythm of life at Maple Leaf Academy.

But for Dure, time passed very slowly; he didn't even have a concept of time. He only did one thing every day: search for an answer in the vast sea of ​​books, hoping to learn from the experience of those who came before him and then solve his own problems.

"No, this explanation is wrong, this part is wrong too, next book, next book." Du Lei didn't care about other people's evaluations and opinions of him at all. Things like "madman" didn't matter to him at all, as long as he could get the answer he wanted.

Let alone becoming a madman, even becoming a mentally ill person wouldn't matter to him. He was so immersed in his own world that he couldn't extricate himself. When he was hungry, he would endure it. If he really couldn't bear it anymore, he would eat a little bit of food. He would try not to drink water as much as possible because drinking water would make him run to the toilet more often.

This would interrupt the train of thought he had finally found, which would infuriate him. During this period, it would not be an exaggeration to describe him as persistent, even obsessive. But even though he was driven to this point, he still had not found the answer he wanted.

Just as Du Lei was habitually looking up information, someone interrupted him.

"What is it?" Du Lei replied impatiently. He was extremely focused at the moment and hated being disturbed. Once his train of thought was interrupted, he would become anxious and uneasy, and the usually calm Du Lei would become a different person.

"It's time for the library to close." The young librarian interrupted Dure. She was in charge of the library when Winster was away, but only on the first floor. Dure didn't know what the upper floors were like.

Because Durée simply didn't have the authority to go up there.

"Is it closed? Can I stay here and read? I think I've figured it out. I believe I can solve this problem soon." Du Lei glanced out the window. At this moment, candles were lit inside the library, while it was pitch black outside.

By this time, all the other students had already gone home, leaving only him and the librarian in the library.

"No, there's no such rule. Please leave immediately." The young administrator had no intention of making an exception for Du Lei.

“But when Mr. Winster was here, I could stay here.” Dure didn’t like the administrator to begin with because he had greeted her before, but she didn’t respond. This arrogant attitude easily made people dislike him.

“Professor Winster is Professor Winster. I only know that this is not in the rules. You must go to the library immediately, right now, and then go back to rest. Do you know how many days you haven’t had a proper rest?” The young librarian took a deep breath and said loudly.

Her chest heaved violently, showing that she was both nervous and excited. The reason was simple: she loved reading and had spent most of her time alone since childhood, rarely interacting with others. Talking to a boy face-to-face like today was something she never even dared to dream of.

"This is my business, what does it have to do with you?" Dure was very impatient, especially since he felt he was very close to the answer. Moreover, he had grown up in harsh environments and had a very strong sense of independence. He hated it when others told him what to do.

"You're being very irresponsible to yourself. If you don't treat yourself gently, you can't treat the books gently either. They're already crying because of your abuse. Didn't you hear that?" The girl felt a little guilty when she saw Du Lei's fierce eyes, and instinctively retreated.

But soon she saw a huge pile of books haphazardly stacked next to Du Lei. She clenched her fists, withdrew her retreating steps, and became very determined.

"You're joking about books crying? How can they cry? They're not living things." Du Lei scoffed at her words. The two didn't get along well to begin with, and now that they had a disagreement, an argument was inevitable.

“No, books have life, they can cry,” the girl shook her head, denying Durei’s words.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about." Du Lei simply turned his head to the side, ignoring her.

"You treat books merely as tools, tools to plunder, never as friends. You relentlessly plunder their knowledge, leaving them exhausted and in pain. It's one thing to torment yourself, but why torment these poor creatures as well?"

The girl stood in front of Du Lei, staring at him stubbornly. As the librarian on the first floor, she had witnessed the students gossiping about Du Lei recently, and she was the one who had spent the most time with him, although they hadn't exchanged a single word during that time.

But she saw everything Du Lei did. Many times she wanted to stand up and say something because she couldn't stand it anymore. However, she was afraid to talk to men, and this fear made her put the plan aside until it came out again today.

"Friend, you mean you treat these books as friends?" Du Lei seemed to have heard a very funny joke. He knew that if he didn't win her over, she would keep bothering him, and he wouldn't be able to read in peace. Thinking of this, he had no choice but to put the books down.

"Yes, it's Tom, it's Hank, it's a boy, it's a girl, and it's also an old man. It likes to tell stories slowly, it's a strict teacher who hopes people will be solemn and formal when reading it, and it's an elegant gentleman."

The girl pointed to each book on the bookshelf and introduced them in detail. The bookshelf was very densely packed with books, and many of them were written in ancient characters that modern people could not understand. However, she seemed to know a lot about these books. Of course, her way of introducing them was very unique.

If others heard the girl's introduction, they would probably call her a madwoman instead of Durei.

“You probably didn’t have many friends before, right? No, you probably still don’t have many friends now,” Du Lei suddenly said.

"How could that be? They are all my friends," the girl vehemently denied.

"To the point of making friends with books means you must be isolated in real life and always feel lonely, right?" Du Lei asked, looking directly into her eyes. This was their first formal conversation in all the times they had met.

260 Hates myself

Dure mercilessly exposed the girl's shortcomings, which seemed heartless, and in fact it was. Usually, people would avoid bringing up such topics to save face for the other person, especially when the other person is a lovely girl.

But Dure didn't do that. It wasn't because he'd spent so much time with Lance that he'd become as straightforward as Lance, but because he just wanted some peace and quiet. He believed that by being direct and to the point, he would make her back down and stop bothering him. He also didn't have time to listen to any talk about books having life.

However, it turns out that he wasn't the only stubborn one. The girl, who had never had her sore spots touched before, went through a transformation from confusion and fear to avoidance, before finally becoming resolute. You could tell from her eyes that she had made an important decision.

"Should we look at friends with discriminatory eyes?" the girl retorted sharply in response to Du Lei's clearly deliberate and difficult words.

"Did I ever say anything discriminatory?" Du Lei immediately retorted. He was someone who spent all his time reading and had clear logic. On the other hand, the girl in front of him spoke very little and was clearly agitated. In Du Lei's opinion, there was nothing to talk about with her.

“Although you didn’t say anything specific, that’s how you acted,” the girl said with certainty.

"Tell me about my behavior. How did I discriminate against my friends and what outrageous things did I do?" Du Lei took it as her nitpicking, and her argument was completely unfounded, which he found absurd and laughable.

In his opinion, it wouldn't take more than a few words to make her feel ashamed of herself, but the girl's next sentence stunned him.

"Everything in the world has life and can be considered a friend. If you treat them sincerely, they will reciprocate sincerely. Treat them as friends, talk with them, laugh with them, and share their secrets, their joys, and their sorrows."

"You don't treat them as friends, you don't even consider them as living beings, you only treat them as work, endlessly taking from and plundering them. This makes them feel pain and despair. They are crying out in pain, but you turn a blind eye to it."

"And what will they give you in return? Anger, roars, hysterical screams. You won't get what you want from them, because they don't even offer the most basic respect or pity. This is simply too much."

The girl wasn't good with words. In fact, she could count the number of times she had spoken to boys on one hand. Whenever someone tried to talk to her, she would say she wanted to stay far away. Even among a group of girls, she was always the one who was ignored. Occasionally, she would try to be more proactive and frank.

She had tried to make friends and open her heart to others, but she was met with ridicule, sarcasm, and incomprehensible surprise, which made her increasingly withdrawn. However, she was not alone because she discovered that even someone as insignificant as her could find her own shining qualities.

She also has friends hiding in the library. She chats and plays games with her friends every day, which makes her happy. She enjoys this life very much, but someone is hurting her friends. It is this boy who is standing on the opposite side of her right now.

He thought he was focused and serious, and that he could get what he wanted from the book, but he was sorely mistaken. Hearing the cries of his friends, the girl who couldn't bear to see them suffer finally stood up and said to Dure the most words she had ever spoken in her life.

If her classmates saw this scene, they would definitely be surprised, because the usually gentle and weak literary girl actually had such a strong side. Judging from her aura, if they did not know the situation, they would probably think that Du Lei had done something outrageous to anger her.

“Everything has life. Books have life, trees have life, and elements have life. How could I have overlooked this?” Dure hadn’t paid any attention to what the girl was saying, because in his opinion, she was clearly looking for trouble, and her words were definitely meaningless.

But after hearing the keyword "life," he realized that his mind, which had been in a terrible state like a dried-up river, was suddenly refreshed as if a river had flowed into it. The sweet and refreshing feeling was invigorating.

As the river meandered, the dried-up riverbed stretched out before him, and all the things that had puzzled him suddenly became clear.

"Oh no, I was just thinking about how I felt and I think I said a lot of hurtful things. What should I do? Should I apologize? But is an apology really helpful? What should I do?" The literary girl was quite passionate when she spoke.

But she regretted it as soon as she said it, especially as her heart started pounding.

She looked at Du Lei nervously. Usually, she always had a tense face and looked very serious and unapproachable. In fact, this was all because she was too nervous. She wanted to communicate with others, but she didn't know how to communicate, how to start, or how to maintain the relationship.

This caused her to always mess up perfectly good situations. She hated her indecisive personality and tried to change it many times, but each time she failed. Now, Du Lei's brows were furrowing more and more, and she assumed that Du Lei was angry, which made her feel more and more guilty.

"I finally know where the problem with my failure lies, my friend. Thank you so much. You've eliminated a big problem that's been bothering me." After thinking carefully for a moment, Du Lei was overjoyed to find that he had indeed found the key to success.

Overwhelmed with emotion, he rushed forward and grasped the girl's hand, his emotions running high.

"Hey, what are you talking about, what's the problem, what's the big issue?" The literary girl was completely confused. She originally thought that Du Lei would scold her harshly, and she was prepared to be scolded, after all, in her opinion, she was in the wrong first.

However, Dure's reaction was completely opposite to the terrible situation she had imagined. Moreover, Dure, who had just been looking bitter and resentful, suddenly became cheerful. She didn't know whether he was possessed or what.

"I'm going to try again now, and I'm sure I'll succeed this time." Dure didn't explain to her, because all he could think about was how to complete his alchemy. After finding the key, he thanked the literary girl again and ran towards the front door.

"What's wrong with him? He doesn't seem quite right. Did I do something wrong again?" The literary girl watched Du Lei leave and began to reflect on her actions. She had done similar things many times before, but each time she found that she had made no progress.

At that moment, Du Lei, who had already left, suddenly returned.

"Huh? What?" The literary girl was startled by his elusive behavior.

"I have to go now. Please pack up the rest. Also, please apologize to your friends for me. I've been causing trouble these past few days. But don't worry, I'll apologize to them personally. It won't be long." After saying this, Du Lei left again.

This time, the literary girl walked all the way to the front door to make sure that Du Lei was really far away and wouldn't suddenly come back for a surprise attack, before she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"He seems quite happy. As long as he's not angry, that's good. I'm afraid he'll cause trouble for others." The girl returned to Dure's original spot and began tidying up the books on the ground.

"No, I absolutely can't do this again. I can't cause trouble for others. Waaah, I hate myself like this!" The literature girl hugged her head, feeling extremely guilty, but before she knew it, she bumped into a bookshelf.

Moonlight streamed obliquely through the window, and the night was quiet.

261. Missing a pot

Dure spent more than half a month in the library, almost to the point of madness, all for the sake of finding an answer—the answer to the question that had kept him from crossing the threshold in alchemy despite his thorough preparation. This was extremely important to him.

This is the first step in his plan after leaving the hot spring village. If he encounters setbacks in this step, he will be at a loss. Generally speaking, smart people do not only have one choice. When faced with insurmountable obstacles, they do not necessarily have to give up.

He could easily have chosen to go around it. Dure didn't consider himself clever; those who think they are clever are often not truly clever. But he was definitely not stupid. He had considered going around it if there were other routes, but if there was no road in front of him, only a wide river, how could he possibly find a way around it?

He spent so much time searching in the library, trying to find a way to cross the river, but after half a month of fruitless searching, he didn't even realize that the path was getting narrower and narrower. This is a strange thing, but also understandable.

Until the appearance of the young literary girl who temporarily replaced Winster as librarian, Dure believed that it was an unintentional mistake. Their argument led Dure to suddenly find a broad road out of a dead end. He suddenly realized that what he had to do was not just find a way out.

He had wood, nails, and a hammer. He could build a road, or a bridge, across this fast-flowing river. Although he didn't know how to build a bridge and had never done it before, he didn't mind giving it a try. Everything has life and needs to be tried.

After leaving the library, he went straight to his usual spot, the little grove that seemed to have become his personal domain. It was really secluded there, except for the occasional squirrel or gray rabbit peeking out and watching as some idiot stood there motionless, neither looking for carrots nor digging a hole to pee.

Of course, this is a good thing for them, because it neither takes away their food nor pollutes the environment, and it adds a lot of fun to their lives, because for a week, when they are bored, they can come and watch that idiot keep drawing on the ground.

After spending half a month in the library, Dure spent another week in the woods. He was completely absorbed in solving the problems of alchemy, and his behavior had already spread throughout the academy. Many people talked about this strange man during their leisure time.

"Hey, have you guys seen that madman from the library lately? I haven't seen him." When Du Lei was fighting in the library, everyone thought he was a weirdo, a madman, and dared not approach him. Now that he's gone, these people are starting to miss him again.